Our country is home to more than 500 potential film producers and directors with film scripts which

can be turned into big block buster movies once given the necessary attention they deserve. Film production in Zambia has taken long to develop with our friends in other African countries counting about 500 movies produced annually, we are still counting double numbers such as 10 or less movies produced in a year. A few movies produced still leave a lot of room for perfection and improvement from the initial acting, camera movement, visual effects to sound and picture quality. What we have in Zambia today are directors and producers with great ideas which are hindered by things such as the initial movie funding, the sourcing of professional production equipment locally and professional production houses with modern facilities. Creativity determines success for most locally produced movies which are produced under hush conditions and tight budgets. Sacrifice from our committed actors and directors has seen what we today call a Zambian movie. Despite our directors having the right goals, vision, content and form for their movie projects presented to will be sponsors, sponsorship is still hard to get even from banks that seem not to be realizing the fact that a good film script is a potential multi million business proposal. The government has also not set up direct policies yet to support movie production locally. We also lack film schools which can teach our actors to be more professional and to also develop our own animators and visual graphics artists. I can assure you that if we can produce the entire film crew from local film schools our movies will be more interesting and will have a greater impact on the market. We need to say good bye to the trimming of our movie projects due to any kinds problem or difficulties we might or are facing as producers and directors, I am talking of finding better solutions to reach the mark, it requires one to think outside the box. Apart from the mentioned set backs, marketing of Zambian movies is quite poor and a lot needs to be done, hiding a movie away from our local people is not the solution to avoid piracy. We need to watch our local movies freely so that we can criticize and commend were necessary. As Zambians we have the right to watch our on sons and daughters freely without any restrictions from the directors of the movie. What I am talking about is airing our local movies on national tv for free and for every one to watch not in cinemas only, you will be surprised to learn that some Zambians have never heard or watched any locally produced movie. As a country we have not yet realized the full potential movie production holds in improving our economy and country at large. America is well known and has developed because of its movie industry, look at Hollywood city, one of the best cities in the world all because of movies. We can copy and do much better and help in creating jobs and infrastructure. All we need as producers and directors is a firm foundation to make our job become easy. Our industry promises good life for every one, not only to entertain but to teach the world of our culture and tradition and also to market our tourism which in return will bring in more foreign exchange and investors. We need everyone's support, the industry is still growing and cooperation and partnership is the key to success.
The Arthur Mr john kamponje independents film critic +260976617267 differencetelevision@yahoo.com